The Senate: How Much Does It Cost?

I had to laugh out loud…

As I was searching for a glimpse into the unbelievable amounts of taxpayer money that it takes to fund the Federal Government and it’s Executive Departments by viewing its Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports, I came across an interesting report called the “2010 Detail of Appropriations, Outlays, and Balances” report.

This “Appropriations, outlays, and Balances” report included the expense accounts and left over ongoing fund balances that are appropriated to the Senate, the House of Congress, the Library of Congress, the Architect of the Capital, the Botanical Garden, the Capital Police, an on and on…

Did you know that each year the Treasury allots a certain amount of taxpayer money to go to the “Senate Hair Care Revolving Fund”?

Yep… The Federal Government has a fund that was created specifically for the hair care of its Senators! For fiscal year 2010, $33,387 was used to outlay this expense. The word outlay simply means “to spend, an amount expended, paid expenditures”.

There are only 100 Senators – 2 representing each of the 50 states.

This means that on each senator $333.87 in taxpayer money was spent to keep them looking sharp for the cameras, hairpieces and all!

But then, I guess that’s about what you’d expect from a fake Hollywood production like this.

But even more importantly, this “revolving fund” has a balance, which is appropriated solely for this Senatorial hair care. That fund balance, which is invested and gains each year, is $261,117.19. That represents a gain for this fund over fiscal year 2009 of about $36,000.

So we have a quarter of a million dollars designated for Senatorial hair care while many U.S. citizens live in destitute tent cities. It’s kinda funny… and kinda not.

The “Official Mail Costs, Senate” column states that the Federal Government appropriated $300,000 to this cost, adding to the existing balance already appropriated for Senate mailing services of $345,430.58. And after $115,546.71 of this money was actually used for mail, $161,082.59 was “withdrawn or used for other transactions”, the fund balance was left for fiscal year 2010 at $368,801.28 – a gain of a bit more than $22,000.

Why is so much money being designated for such trivial things? In a normal business setting, an employee would keep a tally of his expenses and turn in a expense record in order to be refunded that money by the corporation or be given a credit card to be paid off by the company every month. But in governments case, the money is appropriated into accounts or into an individual fund in dollar amounts much larger than are actually being spent.

Dare I say that this money could be used for other things?

But this is just part of the usual shell game, where governmental investment funds and bank accounts are removed from the general use taxpayer fund, which would go to pay or offset other taxes and needed taxpayer budgetary requirements, and put into these accounts and funds which by law must stay in those accounts or be transferred to other such legally appropriated funds. These types of funds happen throughout the entire spectrum of government, from local to district to county to state to Federal government.

But hey, and I hate to tell you this… but we haven’t even scratched the surface yet. These, believe it or not, are the small funds and accounts.

Now let’s look at one of the most outrageous expenses in the Senate (and the Congress).

The average Senator moans and groans about the low salary that he or she is paid, considering the job they are elected to. And the people generally and ignorantly agree. A Senator might mention how noble and altruistic they are for taking on the representation (LOL!) of the people of their state, and that the money that is paid to them for that venture is perhaps inconsequential compared with the honor of the service they are providing to the public (LOL!!!).

But in truth, if one wishes to know how much taxpayer money is earned by each Senator, one would have to go to the main source of that wealth. That source is the individual, tax-exempt expense accounts that each Senator (and congressman) receive.

You see, it is in the best interest of these legislators to keep their base salaries as low as possible. Why? Because those salaries are taxed. Their expense accounts are not!

Listed on this “2010 Detail of Appropriations, Outlays, and Balances” report, under “Contingent Expenses, Senator’s Official Personnel And Office Expense Account, Senate”, we get a more accurate idea of what these crooks are being compensated with in order to be a part of this organized criminal activity working for United States Inc.

The report states that $422,000,000 was appropriated for use in the personal expense accounts of these 100 Senators.

Of that $422 million, $400,590,512.37 was used (outlay) for the personal and office expenses of these Senators.

That represents an average of about $4,005,900per Senator for “personal” and “office” expenses. Tax free. Spent on anything they want.

The account that holds this appropriated money gained about $13,600,000 over 2009 – leaving the ending account balance at $81,448,251.53.

Wow! I want to be a Senator! Hell… I’ll do it for no salary. Just lay that expense account on me!!!

Now you are probably really thinking… WTF?

You might be asking yourself, who in the name of all that is Holy would allow these 100 people to be appropriated with almost half a billion dollars for their personal expenses?

Ever heard of the Senate Appropriations Committee? That’s right. The Senate appropriates this money to their own expense accounts! Excuse me while I laugh out load again…

Now, you are probably thinking that this money is being used for “office” expenses much more than the actual “personal” expenses of these Senators, right?

Wrong…

We already know from looking at the above funds and accounts that these separate expense accounts weren’t used on haircuts, mail, working out, official pictures, restaurants, writing paper with the U.S. Seal embossed upon it, or spent in the gift shop! Actually, I’m sure much of it was spent on wining and dining corporate lobbyists, purchasing fancy suits, and personal grooming and care. But these expense accounts can be used for just about anything. Condos in Tahiti, vacations to Australia, second home purchases for “business purposes”, you name it. All tax exempt!

And as we can see from further examination of this appropriations report, all of the other Senatorial expenses are more than covered by the following other funds and accounts…

And last, but but certainly not least… we come to the actual salaries that are paid to have this set of 100 Senators.

“Salaries And Expenses, Office Of The Legislative Counsel Of The Senate, Senate” – We see that $7,154,000 was appropriated by the Senate itself for the Senator and staff Salaries. Of that amount, $6,394,041.59 was actually paid out (outlay) to the Senators and staff.

In order for each state to have two representatives, a total for the country of 100 Federal Employees for which we call “Senators”, and with the understanding that this in no way represents all monies spent on the Senate or the money that each state pays separately for each Senator (employees, office leases, supplies, legal council, etc.), the taxpayers paid at least the following for 2010:

$8,162,563.35 per Senator (in blue above)

$815,257,003.33 spent/outlay (in purple above)

Of course, the actual amount appropriated for these things is always much higher than the actual costs by thousands or millions of dollars. Sadly, this is purposeful. And, the account and fund balances that have accumulated over the years from over-appropriation (assigning too much money) to these funds for 2010 stand at at least a total of:

$297,905,741.83 excess account and fund balances (in red above).

All of this (plus much much more that is not listed here) just to have 100 men and women pretend to represent us. Remember, these are the people who don’t even read the bills presented to them by their corporate lobbyists before they sign them!

That treason costs the taxpayers of America over $815 million dollars, and well over $1 billion if all related expenses were taken into account.

All this to support 100 men in fancy suits. Imagine what the congress costs…?

All this while Americans lose their homes, their jobs, and their lives.

255 Comments

I agree, but consider a song by Broken Bells, Citizen. This is a day without a trace of reason, sad state of affairs even if you are bald. A solution which we the people can do to convince our representatives that reason will return to the land and the foolishness of us paying for your vanity will cease.
Step one get and take organic sulfur twice a day. Reason will return as will your health then the money you would have spent on being sick you can invest in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Kick the British sympathizers out of Dodge, we failed to do then but now watch them flee.
While these dandies and ladies of office preen Fukushima is killing our children.
Boycott GE and any hair product endorsed by a senator.

deniro1111ch

Lesley

When a new President has unlimited budget to name 27 new “CZARS” and numerous commissions and boards, from his/her so called White House Budget or Executive Budget, without even approval by the Senate for extra money for the new positions plus the moving of Dem Party members and new White House Propaganda Internet into the White House! IT IS OBVIOUS THAT THERE IS NO REAL BUDGET LIMITS OR SET AMOUNT FOR THE VARIOUS BRANCHES OF THE GOVERNMENT.

If we would go back to the orginal intent of having a Part Time Senate and Legislator, maybe the so called “lawmakers” wouldnt have time to do so much legal damage to our Constitutuion and we wouldnt need so many lawyers to argue over what the writers meant by writing bad law and bad regulation? Or how about a “End DATE” to all new law and social programs, where results have to be proven before new appropriations are made automatically each year, with no clear job discriptions or objectives writeen for all the political appointees that subvert and discriminate aganst all the civil service rules aganst graft, corruption, nepotism and accountability? With the very first appointments of Czars, Obama showed no leadership in setting the example or understanding of what other Americans were going through since 9/11 econically.

Where he empahsizes that America has to “set the example of values” to the rest of the world, he has shown no knowledge or understanding of his own “example” in cutbacks, budget, hiring and purchases and travel. Even the so called humanitarian bombs and Nato involvement with Gadafi, shows that Congress and specifically the Senate has no control of Presidential spending or war or anything that the “cheecks and balances” were supposed to ensure. Is it “law and respect for law” or law, law everywhere but no body drinks and respects in the highest offices of the land?

jay howard

I am curious…did you feel this way when George W. Bush blew 3 trillion in Iraq? That’s not even 2 hours of spending when you add up all those figures the Senate is spending now. Or do you just hate it because it’s Obama?

Is there any point where the word democrat or republican is mentioned? The Senate and the Congress is generally speaking made up of about half of representatives of both parties, which should tell you that your party, which I am assuming is Democrat, is just as filthy and crooked as the other.

It is pathetic that you would stand up for someone or something that you have no idea what it is or what its goals are, especially a private association like these corporate “parties”.

Lose the blind support of parties, and you may get a clue as to how controlled you are.

I’m about to give this shit up, I tell you. Does anyone have a brain anymore?

Marcus Farrell

Great article! Well written! Unfortunately, these things have been allowed to go on for generations. They will not be fixed until the system fails and some strong, patriotic well trained military group takes control, physically removes all of them and returns our government to a constitutional basis. I am not going to hold my breath on this one. Our nation is in this condition because of our citizens. They want and want and want but they do not understand the price we must pay to give them all they demand.

Eileen

Wow, thanks for acquiring and then sharing all this almost unbelievable info, this is about the only information I have been able to find while working on my paper for my humanities class. If by chance you or anyone else can assit me either with acces to my querry or even to guide me to a reliable source where I can uncover the answer to the following question it would be very much appreciated 🙂 I am trying to find out how much (total) our federal government costs the taxpayers each year (salaries, pensions, health benefits, perks etc.) as well as how much local elected officials cost the local taxpayers I just want the “FINAL:” number if that is possible, thanks! Eye

Good luck with that. In order to accomplish this, you would have to pull up all 230,000 different government CAFR reports, find all of the offshore accounts etc. that government invests and holds money in, and on and on…

Lisa

Thank you for helping me get my brain around this issue. I don’t know what I can do now but am very fired up to help enlighten others to the spending that never seems to get mentioned. If we all “Pay it Forward” and share with those we know, maybe we can see change down the road. I believe people in any party would be upset by these numbers.

sandy king

madeline

I have noticed my Rep. Peter Roskam (IL) is sporting a very full head of hair recently. When just a year ago he was bald…I figured we all paid dearly for his new pluggs. I thought maybe he paid for it through some medical discretionary fund in their Cadillac health care plan. Wow…there is a special hair fund?

Would you mind if I reprinted part of this for my own blog, I Don’t Get It http://bit.ly/aqxTel ? I would, of course, provide the source. In any event, thanks for all your work in compiling these figures.

Thank you for the reply.
I LOVE your site! As they say knowledge ispower. I’ve been sharing your site & the links you provide.
I think the information you provide is great & I’ve been using it a lot.
With the Occupy movement it’s important to get as much information as possible.
I warned for 10 years before Wall St. crashed that it would do so in a decade due to massive fraud. I was called names. Same with other warnings. Unfortunately I was right. Even so, I keep thinking nothing will surprise me anymore. It doesn’t surprise me but the lump in my stomach is getting to be a problem.
our government has made itself illigitimate & we are in for a long………..??? The one thing I am sure of is FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!

Why don’t they talk about cutting these cost? Is that because they are millionaires and billionaires? They want to cut social security, medicare and medicaid, the cut should start here. We need to cut these benefits out completely!!!!!!!!

Thank you for your hard work putting this together, I’m forwarding it on to everyone I know.
This is the reason the Greeks are protesting, because they are taking the hit, while government pay & benefits are staying the same. The news doesn’t report the real reason why they are protesting, we think it’s because they don’t want to have cuts, but they are willing, just pissed of the government isn’t.

jesse canales

this is just what I was looking for. Now I have the munitions to confront my local senators and representatives. I will educate the public with this article via newspaper and remind them that elections are nearing.

Not one person was jailed for the decades + bundling of junk securities (world wide). Rating, SEC, AIG insurance, Bankers, repeal of Glass Stegall ( Clinton signed the bill – but both parties were responsible) – Goldman Sachs cooked the books for Greece ( no news on this) —in the end citizens world wide are being held responsible for these high rollers. Unspoken is the 100 trill in unfunded liabilities ( SS – Medicare – Pensions) that have yet to fall !! Blame the unemployed – blame the gays – blame the students – blame the sick .

Read – Not Yours to Give by Rep Davvy Crockett and don’t miss McFadden’s speech to Congress ( wow a real statesman). It’s too late – everything is corrupted (local – state – federal) to the core. PLEASE – stop this, “You voted for them”…What choice do people have –NONE. Besides what honest representative government (check your state, ex: NH, who counts the vote) has corporate entities (no paper trail) like Diebold in charge of the votes including COUNTING —see Hacking of Democracy. After 2000 – why vote/ now the Kings (Supreme Court) have decided that money is speech and corporations are people, and oh, if some corporate entity wants your house ( eminent domain revised by Supreme Court) you’re out of luck …..As for health care….see Sausage Making – Culture of Corruption/ get an inside look at the real wheeling and dealing. Legislators have the BEST of health benefits. We pay approx 75%+ of their premium costs – ten bucks for prescriptions, dental, vision, best care in federal facilities, NO problem if you or dependents have pre-existing condition, no waiting period, WE get Medicaid on steroids —try, just try and find a doctor. Do some research -ex: Hospitals closing nation wide —St Vincents’ 160 yrs old closes, Last public hospital in Nev closes (too bad for chemo patients etc) ——-hospitals closing by the dozen in California – doctors/ hospitals NOW refusing Medicare/ Medicaid patients…………….on and on and on. Forever War? What are we protecting?

gene

to Clint
Clint you are easily one of the best truthers in the country…. will you take a look at my comments on this page and consider helping us. The White Hats are interested in making this happen. This could lead to some clout behind bringing these con artists to justice.

William T.

Who cares who it is open to. This Senate is guilty of malfeasance.
They have set themselves up as though fit for a king. They are taking money that should go to the treasury and using it for their pleasure. This will come to an end.

Larry Lane

Great. Tell the folk on food stamps they can at least keep their heads coiffured via Senate Hair Care!

You seem to miss the point, my friend. They get a salary. So do I (for now). But I’m expected to pay for my haircuts out of that salary. As are most people, even if they are expected to maintain a high standard of personal presentation if they want to keep their jobs.

Richard Reed

Excellent job breaking down how Tax Payers are getting the shaft. One thing we can do as a nation is email, write and call our representatives. Remind them they are not our leaders but our representatives. I received a return email from my Congressman about an email I sent on the Enemy Expatriation Act. In his response he stated that Americans have various privileges and responsibilities. I sent a return email, Here it is;

Congressman Posey,

I am surprised that You know so little about the founding of this Nation, it looks like You should also read the Declaration of Independence. Mr Posey they are not privileges, they are unalienable Rights given by our Creator not government. To say that health is a privilege means that someone gave that privilege and can take it away, ie… government. That is why the framers used unalienable Rights, not so called privileges. Now, I never got the answer from the question in my last email on, the Enemy Expatriation Act. Since the language of the law forces under Laws of War, is the US Government at War with the American People, or just Liberty minded Individuals??

Here is another question, what exactly, is meant by hostilities against the US Government. As an example, I will be hostile to any tyrant or group tyrants to my last breath, especially while defending the Constitution for the United States of America, from all enemies foreign and domestic. Would this be classified as hostilities against the United States? Awaiting response and answers.,

Mrs. Smith

Hi realitybloger,
I checked out your page after starting to think of running for Senate in 2016. I wanted to try to complete a campaign for less than 100 dollars after seeing the wasteful spending. I wanted to reduce my salary while in office, but I think I would have to leave it at about 45,000k to provide a decent wage for my 4-person family. What I could do, then, is take down the perk structure that is costing our country so much money. I can do my own hair and makeup and I buy Walgreens cosmetics that last me years. 🙂 I have a perfectly acceptable business wardrobe right now that I purchased from Goodwill. If I can reject the perks you mention above, my election would immediately save the country 8 million dollars. I am completely uninterested in any policies that do not directly remedy our deficit. I would actually read the proposed bills.

The sad thing is that I’m pretty sure everyone starts out this idealistic, but money activates something in the human soul. I think the most challenging thing about my job would be to tell the truth, avoid the wooing of special interest groups, and not get swept up in the potential to have so much. Also, not having the expense account would make it pretty expensive on a 45k salary to fly from my home state to DC as much as is likely required.

I just turned 30, so I am of age. I spent my childhood in a tent in a campground and grew up in the projects. I financed my education and now have a Masters degree. Now, I teach remedial English at our community college. I am American and I am connected to what matters to our citizens. Can I survive in such a corrupt world?

nico

This report is only a sample of “The Reality “of what transpires in the halls of our Congress. What we need is a “Reality Club” revolution much like the “Tea Party”. This club should begain in each County of every State and end up on a National scale. All we need is a leader.

donald clark

glassfranny

Let’s just send them all home… permanently. When this country was founded, communications were in a primitive state, and representatives were necessary. This is no longer true. We spend a lot of money keeping an archaic system afloat, and what do we get for it? Greed and corruption. People think we’re living in a democracy because we are allowed to vote for those who will rob us of both our money and our voices. Get rid of them! Layoff notices for all. We can turn their offices into condos and collect rent.

This is not as crazy as it sounds. We vote for all sorts of things… trivial things… why not vote for important things? Because we might make a mistake? I doubt that we could do worse than the current legislature.

Take the legislative budget and create an information channel (PBS would probably be willing to devote a lot of programming hours in exchange for appropriate funding, or help to create a new broadcast venue) and then let us make policy decisions in the same way that we now vote for american idol. Think of the consternation of the lobbyists when they find that must change their strategy of bribing a few key reps to persuading an entire nation that their cause is worth our largesse.

We’ll need to keep our civil servants, of course, to carry out the will of the people. And we’ll need a president to act as the spokesperson for the nation. I think the Supreme Court is totally unnecessary, and even quite harmful in many cases.

Oh, and while we’re at it, let’s revamp the tax system… let’s have a form that we taxpayers can fill out telling them what they may and may not spend *our* money on… I’ll bet the budget would look substantially different after the first year of that implementation!

silverwings

glassfranny…you are dangerous…someone who can think.
I’ll add to dissolve the FDA also, they just make health care choices that are cheap not able to get in the USA, as first to get something approved you must spend hundreds of millions of dollars. Plenty of good cures go down the drain. My husband had to leave the USA to get cured from cancer 5 years ago, every other developed (and many undeveloped) countries have the cure, The Cleveland Clinic in Canada does the treatment, but cannot in the USA. It’s way too cheap to be approved here, and doesn’t require any drugs nor any hospital stay. If the FDA did ever approve it the price would plummet, as it’s only ultrasound, but a special form, it’s called high intensity focused ultrasound, and it works, no pain, no cutting. BTW, it was invented in Indianapolis in 1941.

glassfranny

Don’t get me started on FDA and USDA… I had a bellyfull of them during the Menu pet foods scandal of 2007. I learned a lot about those agencies during that period, most notably that they are the slaves of corporate agribusiness and the pharma industry. Like most regulatory bodies, they started out as a noble undertakings that became perverted by special interest groups who persuaded the legislature to set up funding mechanisms to hold them hostage to the very industries they’re supposed to regulate. Maybe we should throw them out, or maybe simply reinvent them so that they can carry out their original purpose. Anyway, *we* should decide what’s to be done with them… not some legislator on a fact finding junket.

I totally agree with most of what you say…especially the bit about sending them all home. How about we give them a voucher for a free hairdo in lieu of notice?

I don’t know about the US but in the UK keeping the civil servants wouldn’t cure matters because the top civil servants are the oil in the machine that ensure the relentless adherence to the programme. Why do people want to cling on to the remnants of a system so corrupt you can smell it in the air we breathe? Think chemtrails 😦

Anyway, even if we dismiss them they would probably continue to turn up to the office every day and carry out ‘business as usual’. People won’t abandon this system unless they can see something that will fill the vacuum. They need the security of knowing there is a system. God help them. The way to achieve that is to create an alternative system by dropping out of the existing one and being the change you want to see. Stop playing ball with these psychos. In any little way you can.

I don’t mean you personally, btw, I just mean those of us who want the change have to get involved in making the change because appealing to our “representatives” (who are either bought and paid for by someone else or scared some skeleton might get out of the cupboard if they do the right thing) isn’t going to change a thing.

angela

I think that everyone reading this is – or should be – mad as hell, but what can each of us realistically do to change it? They keep referring to Social Security & Medicare as “entitlements” but 4 million bucks per Senator is absolutely an entitlement. If all these budget items were scrutenized & reduced or eliminated it surely would help reduce the deficit and mean no tax increase for us regular joes.

Michael G. Lihou

Do you have any figures of TOTAL costs for EVERYONE in Washington on the Blood sucking Payroll , Past and present members pensions , medical , Play money , benefits , etc. , All of which they VOTED for them selves , A constitutional change is needed to Forbid this , and make it a Citizen Voted Issue. Make them all Live with the same Medical , and pension standards we live with , Earned by Years of service . No more 100% deals after one TERM . Just as Warren Buffet said , They should not Make Laws that do not apply equally to ALL citizens , especially themselves , without OUR approval (vote ). This is beyond Self -serving ,

Phil Davison

I’m sorry, but this article is either extremely deceptive or willfully ignorant. The Senate fund, you correctly point out is called the, “Contingent Expenses, Senator’s Official Personnel And Office Expense Account, Senate”. Yet, mere moments later, you somehow mistake the term “personnel” for “personal”. Stop feigning outrage. If you actually read the report as you claim to have, you would see itemized expenditures under this category that, contrary to your assertions, are not spent on the Senators themselves, but are used to pay the staff of these Senators. That’s what “personnel” means. The reason this is so high is because each Senator has a Chief of Staff and typically 14 or 15 other people working, just in the D.C. office. Then combine that with usually 3, sometimes as many as 5, functioning District Offices whose sole priority is serving the constituents. This is why this fund is so high. Thank you for your time.

george carlin was right

And to think…this morning they were discussing real news (the location of their tattoos) on CNN*… No. Really. Honest to God.

*No, I do not listen to CNN, but they have it on 3 (yes, 3 goddammit) television sets in the locker room of my gym. Nothing like the Ministry of Propaganda force fed to me after a good workout to make me wanna stab my eyes out with an ice pick…

Larry Ring

Bob

RE: “Did you know that each year the Treasury allots a certain amount of taxpayer money to go to the “Senate Hair Care Revolving Fund”?”

You do realize that all the “Public Enterprise Funds” are run so as to be self-sustaining. This means that Senators and staff pay for their own hair cuts, restaurant meals, etc that are obtained from these businesses.

Julia

And here budgets for education are constantly being cut annually. To think tax payer monies were going to important things. Not to mention, former presidents are still paid a salary after they are no longer in office. AND OUR MILITARY GETS PAID DIDDLY CRAP WITH NO BENEFITS. Grrrr this irritates the heck out of me. This is worse than Hollywood “stars” and what they get paid. So much of the world, our own country, is suffering….

CJD

This really does speak to the fake nature of the Senate itself. These sorts of slush funds for every aspect of their lives smells of a system used to compensate employees and not independent senators. I would bet all of these Senators don’t touch cash that often- or even so much as pay for anything with something as crass a credit card or check. They are billed- and by that- their federal payroll personal accountant is billed and processes the Senator’s daily transactions through each slush fund. Indeed the Senate itself is just a propaganda set piece line item on another budget.

The American Senate has long resembled the pretend Senate of late imperial ancient Rome- a set piece with zero power- a place to pack with idiot cousins, actors, and other assorted court followers and those who could afford to buy a seat merely for the perceived stature the title afforded him- a newly rich merchant trying to angle into the Nobility.

I think that is one of the most brilliant comparisons I’ve ever heard. Thanks for that. I might even quote you on that. Please send any info you have on this that verifies it, if you would. Thanks for the comment!

I did look at the appropriations report, but not being well versed in accounting, I could not make heads or tails of it. I am trying to send letters to the editors of many of our newspapers, as well as trying to reach out to the american people through emails to make them aware of the the fleecing of our public funds. Can I have your permission to use the figures that you have presented in your article?

Another great post, for which you are to be thanked. I have been reading here, and listening to you, for a little while now. Just want you to know I admire your work greatly, your commitment, your determination, your thoroughness and you personal courage in acting on what you know and believe. You’re doing a grand job and I hope you continue to inform and inspire the rest of us to be more like you. Take care.